Ep 56: Ronald H. Spector and the Chaos of Postwar Asia

Ronald H. Spector, Professor Emeritus of History at George Washington University and author of A Continent Erupts: Decolonization, Civil War, and Massacre in Postwar Asia, 1945-1955, joins the show to discuss the fall of Japan, the spread of Communism, and the role of the United States in postwar Asia.

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Times 

• 01:34 Introduction

• 05:57 No clear plan

• 08:30 The Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere

• 10:51 The Indian National Army 

• 12:12 Marines in North China 

• 15:49 Levels of violence

• 17:24 Was 1949 preventable?

• 22:32 U.S. attitudes towards Korea 

• 26:25 Kim Il-sung

• 28:17 Ho Chi Minh goes to Moscow

• 31:08 Stopping the spread of communism 

• 33:03 Reconstruction 

• 35:09 Post 1955